Kentucky men’s soccer (3-4-5, 2-1-2 Sun Belt) fell 2-0 to James Madison (7-1-5, 3-0-2 Sun Belt) in a conference matchup this past weekend.

After a competitive start to the contest, Jeffrey Aguilar struck first for the Dukes in the 25th minute, scoring on a cross in front of goal from Luca Nikolai to give JMU the lead over the Cats.

Ten minutes after scoring its first goal, JMU put together another scoring opportunity that it converted after Nikolai took it himself unassisted to extend the lead to 2-0.

“I thought we played okay in the second half; I thought we were terrible in the first half. We are looking for someone else to solve our problems and we need to take a little more individual responsibility,” Kentucky Head Coach Johan Cedergren said. “But of course, I as the head coach, these are my guys, and I have to find a way for these very talented individuals to perform better as a team.” 

The Wildcats had 10 shots in the second half, but none were successful. Throughout the second half, the Wildcats came out faster, quicker and were ready to fight. Two of the Kentucky players received yellow cards due to the aggressive playing style. 

“So disappointed with the result, disappointed because we missed two breakaways, we had 17 shots and couldn’t score a goal,” Cedergren said. “I think that we created more than enough to win this game, but unfortunately, our performance in the first half really set us back, and it wasn’t enough to fight back in the second half.”

The Wildcats will be traveling down to Orlando, FL on Wednesday, Oct. 23 to play against Central Florida at 7 p.m. ET. The Wildcats will be returning back to The Bell on Sunday Oct. 27, to host Coastal Carolina at 7 p.m. ET.